PERRY – A retired cardiologist filed a complaint in Washington County Superior Court on Monday asking a judge to rule that the selectmen violated the public’s right to know under the Freedom of Access Act in its negotiations with an Oklahoma-based LNG developer.

Ron Rosenfeld also said, through his attorney, John Foster of Eastport, that two members of the board also were wrong when they put the negotiated proposal out for referendum in violation of the FOAA and the selectmen failed to produce documents requested under FOAA. Rosenfeld is asking for an expedited hearing on the matter because of the coming March town meeting and vote.

Chairman David Turner said Tuesday he had referred the matter to the Maine Municipal Association. He said the town did have public official liability coverage so it is expected that MMA will handle the lawsuit at no cost to the town.

At issue is whether voters can make an informed decision without the background information that led to the agreement between two selectmen and the company.

At the town meeting, voters will be asked to approve a total payment package of more than $90 million to the town over the next 25 years. The annual payment to the town would be $3.6 million. Turner spearheaded those negotiations.

The formal request for information began last week when Rosenfeld sent a letter to Turner.

In that letter, Rosenfeld requested copies of all letters, e-mails or other written communication dated from March 28, 2006, to now between the town and Quoddy Bay LNG to site a liquefied natural gas tank farm in the town.

The company has struck a deal with the Passamaquoddy Tribe at neighboring Pleasant Point to build an LNG facility on the reservation adjacent to Perry. An underwater cryogenic pipeline would carry super-cooled gas in liquid form under two public roads and across a small bay to the tank farm in Perry.

The medical doctor’s request was broad and also included all communication between the company and the town’s attorney except what is excluded under the state’s executive session provision.

“I request that none of the foregoing requested documents be deleted from any computers, whether they be yours, your wife’s, your employers or the town’s attorneys,” Rosenfeld wrote. Any “spoliation of the requested documents” could lead to “legal penalties, the letter added.

Addressing the issue of meetings and public notice, Rosenfeld noted that the selectmen and the town’s attorney met twice with Quoddy Bay during the week of Jan. 29 to negotiate the terms of the proposal. Agreeing that that appeared to be a legitimate executive session, Rosenfeld went on to say, “but I do not understand why the resulting sessions with Quoddy Bay to negotiate were also held in executive session and without notice to the public and press.”

In his letter of response, not dated, Turner said that he would discuss the release of the “executive session material” at the selectmen’s meeting Monday. “We must vote to release this information but I would anticipate the vote would be favorable,” Turner wrote.

Attorney Foster said Monday that Turner had missed the point of the letters. He said that Rosenfeld was not requesting executive session materials.

On Monday, Rosenfeld filed an appeal and complaint against Turner and the town.

In his complaint, Rosenfeld alleges that before March 2006, Turner, then a private citizen, led a nonprofit group called the Perry Improvement Association to negotiate a deal with Quoddy Bay LNG. At that time, Quoddy Bay wanted to build a terminal and tank farm in nearby Gleasons Cove on land owned by the tribe, but located in the town. In that deal, spearheaded by Turner, the company offered to pay the town $1 million a year. In 2005, Perry voters rejected that offer.

Turner was elected to the board on March 28, 2006. “From that date to the present, by consistent 2-1 votes at meetings of the Perry Board of Selectmen, defendant Turner has pursued his personal agenda to establish an agreement between [Perry] and Quoddy Bay LNG,” the complaint said. In meetings dealing with LNG, Selectman Dick Adams has sided with Turner, while Selectman Jeanne Guisinger has cast the dissenting vote.

In the complaint, Rosenfeld also alleges that Turner has met and corresponded privately with Quoddy Bay and also has communicated with the company “on the subject of possible terms for a favorable public vote” on the agreement

Bowing to public pressure, the negotiations later were opened to all selectmen.

The complaint also alleges that on certain dates no public notice was given of meetings, nor was a vote taken and recorded to enter executive session. Last year, Turner and Adams voted to do away with minutes after a contentious discussion amid allegations that the minutes did not reflect the content of the meetings.

On Feb. 5, Turner and Adams voted to approve the agreement with the company and place it before voters in March.

On Feb. 12, Rosenfeld sent a letter to Turner requesting the documentation.

Turner responded, but the letter did not reach Rosenfeld until Feb. 21. Rosenfeld was in New Hampshire, “[Rosenfeld] had specifically requested that defendant Turner respond to his request by mailing it to his Eastport attorney, but defendant Turner ignored this request,” the complaint said.

Upon receiving Turner’s letter, Rosenfeld sent a response, but to date has not heard from Turner.

A referendum vote is scheduled for March 26.

“Disclosure of the information requested by [Rosenfeld] is of substantial public interest and importance, and its production to the public should be made well before the scheduled referendum,” the complaint said.

Rosenfeld asked for an expedited hearing on the matter.